George Eastman Museum

Interview conducted by George Pratt in Rochester, NY. Photo courtesy MGM/Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Interview conducted by George Pratt in Rochester, NY. Photo courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Interview conducted by George Pratt in Rochester, NY. Photo courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Interview conducted by George Pratt in Rochester, NY. Photo courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Photo courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Photo by Ruth Harriet Louise. Courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Photo by Ruth Harriet Louise. Courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Photo courtesy Universal Studios Company, Inc./Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Photo courtesy Universal Studios Company, Inc./Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Interview conducted by George Pratt in Rochester, NY. Photo courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Interview conducted by George Pratt in Rochester, NY. Photo courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Interview conducted by George Pratt in Rochester, NY. Photo courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The spring schedule was thrown into some chaos with the announcement of our first award event in four years, but we’ve managed to put together a series of seven films and a roundtable discussion to celebrate the career of Jodie Foster. The actor, director, and producer has done a great amount of impressive work over the last 50 years, which will be discussed at our Dryden Roundtable discussion featuring Curator of Film Exhibitions Jared Case sitting down with Nora Brown, Executive Director of the Rochester/Finger Lakes Film Office, as well as film professors Kendall Phillips (Syracuse University) and Carter Soles (SUNY Brockport). The roundtable takes place Saturday, May 6, at 2pm, and all George Eastman Museum members receive free admission. All other tickets are just $10. The films range from drama to science fiction to thriller, and span the length of Foster’s career.

Join Curator of Film Exhibitions Jared Case and film critics Adam Lubitow, Matthew Passantino, and David Palmer as they discuss the films nominated for this year’s Academy Awards. Talk of the Oscar changes for this year, favorite nominations, and worst snubs will lead to deeper discussions about some of the best films of the year and how they made 2022 one of the best years in recent cinema memory.

One of the things I like to stress to people about how this show goes and how it is put on is that without the help of the landscape volunteers, this show would not happen. There are two people involved in this department, and without the volunteers, we wouldn't be able to do half of the things that are done both inside and out in the gardens. One of the things I'd like everyone to take away from this show is that volunteers are needed at all times for this department because of the immense amount of work that goes on. This show alone, when the show is on for the two or three weeks that we run it, my volunteers are putting in anywhere from eight hundred to a thousand hours of help. Without their help, this doesn't happen. I always put out a big shout to them, because without them, the museum would not be the way it is. The grounds would not be as beautiful as they are, and this show would definitely not happen. For those of you interested, we are always looking for new volunteers to help both with the show,

Some of the biggest challenges that we run into, obviously, it's a plant. So trying to get plants to grow when you want them to is always a challenge. There are years that the tulips don't get enough of a cold season and won't bloom as well. There are times when there's a problem with the ball, and that whole type of daffodil I was expecting to see doesn't come up. There's also the huge challenge of hoping I can get everything to bloom at the same time. I can sing to them. I can dance to them. It really doesn't matter. They're on their own. What we do is mess with the temperatures to hopefully try to speed them along. Then if they're going too fast, to drop the temperatures back down to a cooler area to slow them down so they're ready for the show.

Once the show is done, the show is taken down, most of the product is given away to my volunteers. They're allowed to come in as a thank you for helping us out. The rest is given to a couple of community organizations that use them around the neighborhoods to plant up in the corner gardens that you'll see around the city, and then some of it does get composted. What we do find is that the neighborhood knows when I compost, because once they're in the compost bins, it seems people come by and pick up bulbs for free. Not a problem. I'm glad people are using them. Once the show's done, we now have to clean up the mess. That's over 2,500 pots that need to be scraped and cleaned, washed and sterilized, to be ready for the following show. So the show basically goes on from June to June. During the rainy days during the summer, we're washing the pots, we're getting things ready. So it is a year end, year round endeavor for the Eastman House to put this show on for you.

This process to put a show together starts in June. It is almost a year-round process for us to put this on. Orders go in in June, with delivery in October. All of my orders are put through to two companies that are directly connected to Holland. Their offices are here in New York, but their farms are in Holland. The companies that I use, one of them is directly connected with Eastman. He originally was ordering bulbs from this company. It's been around since the late 1800s. It's another way for us to connect with how George Eastman did run his gardens and how he ran his flowers in the winter. All of my bulbs are brought direct from Holland, usually on skids that are sent over. How I know is we have packing lists that come in Dutch. Luckily, I do get sent ahead of time packing lists in English so that I can understand what they've sent me. That's just the beginning of this show that you're looking at today. Come October, the bulbs start arriving into the U.S. and are brought to us here in the Eastman House,

I began this journey of doing the gardens and the shows back in 2004. Was lucky enough to come in here out of school and be hired as an intern, and ever since then it's been just an upward challenge to keep the gardens in shape and to produce this show every year. This year's exhibit will contain upwards to 14,000 bulbs in bloom in the house at any one point. The show in February is one of the earliest shows in North America for a forced bulb show. Some very big challenges come up to make it happen in the middle of winter. As you walk through the museum, you will see the different displays that we have put out to show you how Eastman may have had it. We do have pictures that show he had orchids and forced bulbs around the room, just not as extensively as we show in one show. Our thought is to bring to you all of the amounts of flowers he would've seen in his winter months in the short time of the show. This year's show will include hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, amaryllis, a lot of early spring blooming pla

Speaker 1: The museum started this show back in 1995, and it has run annually since. It's inspired me trying to bring back a little bit of how George Eastman lived his life during the winter months, and to bring it back for people to see. Every year he would order 30 to 40,000 bulbs for some into the greenhouses, and put some into the yard every year. During the winter months, he would have his gardeners bring them into the house so we could have fresh growing flowers all year round, tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, all those early spring forceable plants that he could bring in.